page_title: Hazaras
section_title: 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Hazaras / History / 20th century
caption_attribution_description: English: Abdul Ali MazariDari: عبدالعلی مزاری
context_page_description: The Hazaras are a Persian-speaking ethnic group native to, and primarily residing in, the mountainous region of Hazarajat, in central Afghanistan. They speak the Hazaragi dialect of Persian.
  They are the third-largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, and are also a significant minority group in neighboring Pakistan, where there is a population of between 650,000 and 900,000, mostly in Quetta. Hazaras are considered to be one of the most oppressed groups in Afghanistan, and their persecution dates back decades.
context_section_description: In 1901, Habibullah Khan, Abdur Rahman's successor, granted amnesty to all people who were exiled by his predecessor. However, the division between the Afghan government and the Hazara people was already made too deep under Abdur Rahman. Hazara continued to face severe social, economic and political discrimination through most of the 20th century. In 1933 King Mohammed Nadir Khan was assassinated by Abdul Khaliq Hazara. The Afghan government captured and executed him later, along with several of his innocent family members.
  Mistrust of the central government by the Hazaras and local uprisings continued. In particular, from 1945–1946, during Zahir Shah's rule, a revolt took place against new taxes that were exclusively imposed on the Hazara. The Kuchi nomads meanwhile not only were exempted from taxes, but also received allowances from the Afghan government. The angry rebels began capturing and killing government officials. In response, the central government sent a force to subdue the region and later removed the taxes.
  During the Soviet–Afghan War, the Hazarajat region did not see as much heavy fighting as other regions of Afghanistan. However, rival Hazara political factions fought. The division was between the Tanzáim-i nasl-i naw-i Hazara, a party based in Quetta, of Hazara nationalists and secular intellectuals, and the Islamist parties in Hazarajat. By 1979, the Hazara-Islamist groups liberated Hazarajat from the central Soviet-backed Afghan government and later took entire control of Hazarajat away from the secularists. By 1984, after severe fighting, the secularist groups lost all their power to the Islamists.
  As the Soviets withdrew in 1989, the Islamist groups felt the need to broaden their political appeal and turned their focus to Hazara ethnic nationalism. This led to establishment of the Hizb-i-Wahdat, an alliance of all the Hazara resistance groups (except the Harakat-i Islami). In 1992 with the fall of Kabul, the Harakat-i Islami took sides with Burhanuddin Rabbani's government while the Hizb-i-Wahdat took sides with the opposition. The Hizb-i-Wahdat was eventually forced out of Kabul in 1995 when the Taliban movement captured and killed their leader Abdul Ali Mazari. With the Taliban's capture of Kabul in 1996, all the Hazara groups united with the new Northern Alliance against the common new enemy. However, it was too late and despite the fierce resistance Hazarajat fell to the Taliban by 1998. The Taliban had Hazarajat totally isolated from the rest of the world going as far as not allowing the United Nations to deliver food to the provinces of Bamyan, Ghor, Maidan Wardak, and Daykundi.
  Hazaras have also been a significant role in the creation of Pakistan. One such Hazara was Qazi Muhammad Essa of the Sheikh Ali tribe, who had been close friends with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, having had met each other for the first time whilst they were studying in London. He had been the first from his native province of Balochistan to obtain a Bar-at-Law degree and had helped set up the All-India Muslim League in Balochistan.  
  Though Hazara played a role in the anti-Soviet movement, other Hazara participated in the new communist government, which actively courted Afghan minorities. Sultan Ali Kishtmand, a Hazara, served as prime minister of Afghanistan from 1981–1990 (with one brief interruption in 1988). The Ismaili Hazara of Baghlan Province likewise supported the communists, and their pir (religious leader) Jaffar Naderi led a pro-Communist militia in the region.
  During the years that followed, Hazara suffered severe oppression and many ethnic massacres, genocides and pogroms were carried out by the predominantly ethnic Pashtun Taliban and are documented by such groups the Human Rights Watch. These human rights abuses not only occurred in Hazarajat, but across all districts controlled by the Taliban. Particularly after their capture of Mazar-i-Sharif in 1998, where after a massive killing of some 8,000 civilians, the Taliban openly declared that the Hazara would be targeted.
caption: Abdul Ali Mazari, leader of the Hizbe-Wahdat party during and following the Soviet–Afghan War.
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